Last movie you watched......

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Not my favorite Indy adventure, but still miles better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Very rousing and triumphant final scene when the music hits and all the kids run into frame, reuniting the families. Great, feel-good ending.

 

I watched it on Netflix tonight partly because of your mention, and it was really interesting.

Didn't realize Amber Lynn and Buck Adams were siblings. And he hired her to act in some of the movies he was directing -- that's kind of ... creepy.

 

"Contagion" seemed like a cheery way to greet the New Year. Another rock-solid genre piece from Soderberg. I like anything where big, billed stars die before the end.

 

OOP, don't you think there were major pacing flaws within "Dark Knight Rises," even if you go in loving the action genre?

It seems that being an action movie doesn't excuse the following:

• No chemistry established at all between Bruce Wayne an Miranda Tate before they end up in bed together. The scene serves no purpose except to set up her shocking betrayal later in the movie. Which I didn't care about because I wasn't invested in the pair to begin with.

• Bane's lack of dramatic motive. He wants to give people hope so then they can feel more despair? Huh? And why? Who is this guy? He has a hulking physical presence, but no soul until the script hurriedly tries to give him one late in the game. Which might even work if his background and motivation had somehow been established as a driving mystery in the story. It was not.

• The film badly loses track of time. How long is Bruce Wayne in the prison? What is happening in Gotham in the meantime? Where did everyone go? What consequences are they dealing with? All of this is handled very, very poorly. I became quite unmoored as a viewer attempting to invest in the unfolding drama.

• Why is Selina Kyle even in this film? To give Catwoman a role? To give Anne Hathaway one? To, generally, give the teen-age audience some T&A? She is truly the Jar-Jar Binks of this franchise.

• Someone mentioned that Bane carried out everything that the Joker only threatened. I think that takes away from this one. At some point, what is one more act of destruction, really? There's no tension left by the end. The nuclear bomb is a tired plot device in this kind of film, and a series that purports to be different should be above that.

• The dialogue was undorgivably brutal. Michael Caine serves the role of Ellen Page from "Inception," existing to dump exposition on the audience. And some of the Bane comments are absurdly on the nose and broad. It's like a bunch of flashing neon signs: Theme! Theme! Theme!

And this is without even mentioning some of the more comic book tropes, like Batman showing back up out of nowhere in a locked-down Gotham City. Or the entire police force being sent into a tunnel. Or Bruce Wayne overcoming, overnight, one debilitating injury after another to kick ass.

Ultimately, this is a generic action movie, with Batman tacked on to widen the appeal. Too many characters. Too much plot. The script can't bear it all, and it collapses under its own weight. I said it was too long. I thin that's inaccurate. It was too short. If Nolan wanted to include everything here, he needed to split this into two films and overhaul the pacing and characterization entirely. Or maybe even a miniseries.

As it is, just a very poorly executed movie.

 

I'm not questioning your bashing of The Dark Knight Rises. It is my least favorite of the trilogy for some of the reasons you cited. I'm saying your bashing of the entire series might come from your own biases. The first two were outstanding.

Batman Begins is a great movie. Sure, it is another origin story, but it's a very different one. It's a new take on an old story, executed beautifully. One way I judge comic book movies is by how my wife takes them. She goes in expecting to hate them. Batman Begins is one of the few that pleasantly surprised her and she was anxious to see the sequels.

The Dark Knight is a slightly lesser film, but Ledger's performance as the Joker makes it pretty damn close.

The Dark Knight Rises certainly has flaws. I didn't have the same issue with Bane that you did. You question where he came from and his motives, but we didn't really have that for The Joker, either.

I do think they would have been better off dropping Catwoman and doing a better job of developing Miranda Tate. There was certainly that second sequel problem of shoving too much into one movie, just like the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises, though this was miles better.

 

Lincoln. While it had great actors and acting, it still felt very much like a TV movie in its pace, dramatics and plotting. Pretty forgettable overall.

 

Watched Ted, the unedited version, with my girlfriend and her 87 year old mother last night.

Awkward.

 

I've watched roughly 25 movies over the past couple weeks. Here are the highlights...

Lawless was awesome.
Reacher was way better than I figured.
Cabin in the Woods was one of the more strange movies I've ever seen. And entertaining.
Killer Joe was also strange, but probably McConaughy's (sp) finest performance aside from the one where he's an oddsmaker.
Winter's Bone was the most redneck wild goose chase ever. Good, though.
The Campaign was very funny. I feared the worst, but it was legit.
Christmas Vacation still holds the title of best Christmas movie ever.

 

Amen on "Christmas Vacation."

I loved McCadflijadf in "Magic Mike," as well. Have heard great things about "Killer Joe." I'll have to check it out ASAP.

 

Yeah. Do that. McC;lkajgjkh is a goddamn weirdo in that movie. Brilliant, though. Very, very creepy.

 

Glad you said this. I don't have great taste in movies (or most things) but I enjoyed it for what it was. Reading others' takes on it made me second-guess my enjoyment. Glad you liked it too.

 

I really enjoyed it. Especially the older brother guy, whoever that was. He was outstanding. And really, I can't get enough of Jessica Chastain.